cause we fed them! They added
they had not been paid for more than eighteen months.

Why did not Ranjoor Singh make this arrangement sooner, you ask. Why
did he wait so long, and then choose the night of all times? Not all
thoughts are instantaneous, sahib; some seem to develop out of
patience and silence and attention. Moreover, it takes time for
captured men to readjust their attitude--as the Germans, for
instance, well knew when they gave us time for thought in the prison
camp at Oescherleben. When we first took the Syrians prisoner they
were so tired and timid as to be worthless for anything but driving
carts, whereas now we had fed them and befriended them. On the other
hand, in the beginning, the Turks, if given a chance, would have
stampeded with the carts toward Angora.

Now that both Turks and Syrians had grown used to being prisoners
and to obeying us, they were less likely to think independently--in
the same way that a new-caught elephant in the keddah is frenzied
and dangerous, but after a week or two is learning tricks.

And as for choosing the night-time for the change, every soldier
knows that the darkness is on the side of him whose plans are laid.
He who is taken unawares must then contend with both ignorance and
darkness. Thieves prefer the dark. Wolves hunt in the dark.
Fishermen fish in the dark. And the wise commander who would change
his dispositions makes use of darkness, too. Men who might disobey
by daylight are like lambs when they can not see beyond the light a
camp-fire throws.

But such things are mental, sahib, and not to be explained like the
fire of heavy guns or the shock tactics of cavalry--although not one
atom less effective. If Ranjoor Singh had lined up the men and
argued with them, there might have been mutiny. Instead, when he
judged the second ripe, he made sudden new dispositions in the night
and gave them something else to think about without suggesting to
their minds that he might be worried about them or suspicious of
them. On the contrary, he took opportunity to praise some
individuals and distribute merited rewards.

For instance, he promoted the two naiks, Surath Singh and Mirath
Singh, to be daffadars on probation, to their very great surprise
and absolute contentment. The four who guarded Tugendheim he raised
to the rank of naik, bidding them help Tugendheim drill the Syrians
without relaxing vigilance over him. Then he chose six more troopers
to be naiks. And of